We have known for a while that the Linux 6.19 development cycle has been a bit disruptive with Christmas and New Year disrupting the early stages of development. Now, with the sixth release candidate just arriving, Linus Torvalds has more or less confirmed that an eighth release candidate, which is not the norm, looks very likely.
The Linux founder noted this week that RC6 is slightly larger than usual. While he isn’t too worried about this, he did say that “the slightly larger size does make me think that my plan to do an extra RC8 remains reasonable.”
The reasons for the larger release candidate are multifarious. Developers catching up on work after the holidays is cited as a primary reason. Another reason given is that it"s simply the result of timing fluctuations with more pull requests arriving at the same time over the week. Despite the larger release, Torvalds notes that the code is stable and not chaotic, indicating there are no show-stopper bugs or scary architectural problems.
Standard kernel cycles usually go to RC7 before the final release. An RC8 adds an extra week of testing. If it materializes, it will be used to ensure the pent-up work hasn’t introduced any subtle regressions.
The RC6 brought with it some notable individual changes. For example, Alice Ryhl submitted a fix for Rust bit operations on 32-bit ARM, showing the continued maturation of Rust in the kernel. There were several updates to the Landlock Linux Security Module (LSM) to fix TCP handling and documentation. More support for various specific hardware, such as the PICAXE AXE027 cable and new quirks for Dell and ASUS laptops were added.
It should go without saying that most users should not attempt to install this kernel as your machine will likely not boot after installing it. The best course of action is to wait until your distribution receives Linux 6.19 as an official update, the time until rollout of this update will vary based on what system you are running.